Chapter Twenty: The Mirror Mage
Hey there, readers, I hope you enjoyed the holidays and a happy New Years, let's just hope 2021 doesn't suck. In my last chapter, I said that I was going on hiatus to think of some new chapters, well, I did just that, but that's not all, in celebration of the New Year, I'm going to do something special, a week-long update, so from today until Saturday, I'm going to post a new chapter, that means you're getting a total of 7 new chapters this week, please accept it as an apology from me for not keeping up with production. So with further adieu, please enjoy this string of chapters. Cya.
The sun rose over the Clover Kingdom, signifying the coming of a new day, but as it rose over Aqua Deer HQ, its rays didn't find Zuka asleep on her bed, but rather sitting down by her desk, nightgown on, blue and magenta hair down, her face resting on her palm.
"I can't believe I let myself cry back there, it was totally not like me, and it was in front of Kenos too, but…," she mumbled, placing her hand on her chest. "It didn't feel that bad, it actually felt...pretty good,"
She then stood up. "Well, better get ready, I can't stay in here all day," she said, grabbing her towel and running to the showers, once she came back, she put on her clothes and tied up her ponytail before exiting.
The sparkle mage then turned and saw the door to Shauna's room. "I must have gotten ready earlier today, usually I'd see Shauna either coming out of her room or passing through the hall,"
"Hello, Zuka," a voice said, she turned around to see Fragil.
"Oh, good morning, Fragil," Zuka greeted with a small smile. "Is there anything you need?"
"No, Rill wants to see you in his office quickly," Fragil replied.
"I see, thanks," she replied as Fragil walked away, she then made her way to the door of her captain's office and started knocking.
"Come in," Rill said from the other side of the door, Zuka did so and entered, as usual, she saw the young captain painting.
"You wanted to see me, sir," Zuka said. "And please don't let it be about your painting this time," she whispered the last part.
"Yes, I did," Rill responded as he stood up. "Yesterday, you came to me asking if you can bring one of your friends somewhere to cheer him up,"
Zuka nodded. "That's right sir, you permitted me to go, is there something wrong?"
The captain shook his head. "No, not at all, I called you here to congratulate you, it's good to see friends helping each other out, I bet he's very grateful to you, but while I am proud, we can't forget that we're Magic Knights, so I'll be assigning a mission for you," he explained. "Would you like Shauna and Oliver to accompany you, or would you prefer another group?"
"Nope, I'm perfectly fine with the first option, I'd like all my team-ups to be with them," she replied.
Rill smiled. "Alright then, I'll send you the info later, for now, go get some breakfast,"
"Yes sir, thank you," Zuka said as she clover-saluted and left the room, making her way to the breakfast hall.
"It's good to see friends helping each other out, I bet he's very grateful to you," Rill's words repeated in Zuka's head, the sparkle mage sighed. "He is very grateful, but so am I, the point of that trip was for me to comfort him, but in the end, I was the one who ended up being comforted,"
She arrived at the breakfast hall and grabbed her plate, filling it with the usual content before finding her usual spot and sitting down there. She took a bite before stopping, she couldn't stop thinking about what happened the day before, meeting Nathan, her and Kenos' battle with Levi, their inability to save the grave, and...the solar mage comforting her, but as she got to the last part, another thought came into her head.
"He was...really close," she thought before blushing profusely, she grabbed her face. "Wait a minute, what am I thinking, he's my friend, I shouldn't think of him that way! But...he told me that he would always be there for me, and I'd be lying if I said that didn't make me feel a little happy,"
"Hey there, Zuka," the sound of two voices brought the girl out of her thoughts as she saw Shauna and Oliver sit down across from her.
"Is something the matter Zuka, your face is red?" Oliver asked curiously.
The blush on her face lessened, but was still a bit rosy, she turned her face away from her friends. "Yeah, I'm fine, I was just thinking about something Kenos told me yesterday," she tried replying in her most casual voice.
"Oh, and speaking of Kenos, how'd the trip with him go yesterday?" Shauna asked.
Zuka turned to face the illusion mage. "It went pretty good, his slump is gone and he's back to his old self, I really owe you one Shauna,"
"Don't mention it girl, we're friends, that's what we do," she said back.
The sparkle mage smiled before taking another bite of her breakfast, glad her friend from the Black Bulls was feeling better.
"I'm really sorry, everyone!"
The next day came for the Black Bulls, but they looked in surprise at the solar mage as he bent down, exclaiming an apology to them.
"I worried all of you, you tried to cheer me up, but I was being stubborn, forgive me!" he exclaimed again.
Asta walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't sweat it, none of that matters right now, what's important is that you're back to your old self,"
"Yeah, he's right, seeing you sulk worried us a lot more than anything else," Vanessa added.
Kenos straightened himself, a smile was on his face. "Thanks a lot, everyone, I promise I won't worry you ever again,"
"Well, it's good to have you back kid," Yami said as he blew smoke from his cigarette. "I know what, why don't you all get the day off, in celebration of Kenos,"
"Thank you very much captain!" they all exclaimed, clover-saluting to him.
"I know the perfect thing to do," Kenos said as he went to his room, coming back, he had his broom in hand before he walked outside and looked at the bright blue sky above him.
Asta and Noelle walked out. "Hey, where are you off to?" the swordsman asked.
"I'm going to Nean, this day off is a perfect chance for me to visit Eon," he replied.
"Eon? Oh yeah, the girl you met at the mixer," Noelle said.
"Hey Kenos, is it alright if I tag along, I want to visit Rebecca too," Asta said before feeling pecking on his head. "Oh, it seems Nero wants to come too,"
"Sure, hop on, let's get going," the solar mage said as his squadmate did so, the two then soared into the sky.
"Cya around Noelle!" the two boys called as they were soon out of view.
The water mage's face bloomed red. "Wait, he's going to Nean to see...Rebecca!" she mentally exclaimed before she ran back inside, right towards Finral.
"Hey Finral, is it possible that you can transport me to Nean?" she asked quickly.
"Um, yeah, I can, why do you need to go there exactly?" the spatial mage asked back.
"No time to explain, just hurry!" she exclaimed in response.
"Okay okay," he said as he formed a portal.
"Thanks a lot," she said as she ran inside of it.
"What's up with her?" Magna asked as they all shrugged.
Footsteps were then heard from the hall, they all turned to see Gauche walk out, the others widened their eyes, they had forgotten that Gauche wasn't present earlier.
"Oh, Gauche, good news, Captain Yami gave us the day off today," Finral informed the mage.
"Wait, really?" he asked, to which they all nodded. "Oh, hell yeah!"
He ran back to his room and came back with his broom in hand. "I'm going to go visit Marie!"
Once outside, he mounted his broom and quickly zoomed into the sky. "Don't worry, my sweet baby sister, your older brother is on his way, off to Nean!"
Meanwhile, the two mages continued to fly through the sky.
"We should be close to the town," Kenos said.
"Have you ever been to Nean before?" Asta asked.
The solar mage shook his head. "Not really, it was some time ago before I became a Magic Knight, I was mostly on my way to another destination and just passed by Nean," he replied.
"Well, I wonder how we'll find Eon and Rebecca when we get down there," Asta wondered aloud.
"We'll handle that problem when we come to it," Kenos said before he looked down and smiled, seeing the large town. "We're here, brace for landing,"
Asta held on tight, but Nero was quite calm as the broom faced downwards and flew to the ground, landing gently as they got off.
"Okay, now I suppose we could ask around to find them," Kenos said.
"Kenos? Asta?" a voice said, the two magic knights turned around to see Eon, next to her was Rebecca, with three younger kids standing right next to her.
"Damn, that was oddly easy," Kenos mumbled to himself as they ran over to the older girls, smiles on both their faces. "Hey there, I hope this isn't a bad time to visit,"
"No way, I told you that you could come to visit whenever you wanted," Eon told him with a warm smile. "It's good to see you again,"
Kenos smiled. "Same here,"
Asta stepped up. "It's good to see you too Rebecca,"
The scarlet-haired girl nodded with a light blush. "Likewise,"
Asta then looked down, seeing the three children, he bent down to look at them, two were girls, one with blonde hair, the other with scarlet hair, the third was a boy with scarlet hair. "Hello there, who are you three?" he asked gently.
Rebecca patted the heads of the scarlet-haired kids. "Oh, these are two of my siblings, Luca and Marco, and this is Marie Adlai,"
Kenos raised a brow. "Adlai? That last name sounds familiar, and you look familiar," Kenos said as he looked at the blonde girl.
Marie noticed their robes. "Oh, are you two Magic Knights, and you're with the Black Bulls, that's the same squad as my brother, Gauche,"
The two Black Bulls widened their eyes. "Oh yeah, you're Gauche's little sister," they said together, unable to believe they didn't remember the face of the person their squadmate fawned over almost every minute of every day.
"Gauche had a point though, you're pretty cute," Asta said as he lifted Marie into the air.
"Thanks, and you're really strong," Marie said back with a smile.
"Oh, me next!" Marco exclaimed, wanting to be lifted by the swordsman.
Kenos watched his squadmate entertain the children as Luca walked up to him. "Hello Luca, I'm Kenos Rossiu, it's nice to meet you," he greeted the scarlet-haired girl.
"So you're Kenos aye, the boy Eon threw herself at on the night of the mixer?" Luca asked.
Kenos was taken aback by those words. "Threw...herself?"
Eon quickly ran in between them. "You better watch your words, Luca, I did NOT throw myself at him!" she exclaimed as he nervously flailed her arms in a denying manner.
The little girl looked unconvinced as he put a hand on her hip. "I don't know, Rebecca said that you two went on a walk, and when you came back, you were clinging to his arm," she said before looking at Kenos. "Just asking, how old are you?"
"Um, I'm 16 years old," Kenos replied.
Luca turned her attention back to Eon. "So, you like throwing yourself on younger boys,"
The green-haired teen was fuming. "I didn't throw myself on him, stop trying to make me sound like some cheap whore," she said quietly, pushing her face at Luca's.
The girl pushed back. "Your words, not mine,"
The solar mage nervously chuckled at what he saw before him. "I'm guessing this is what she meant when she said she didn't along with Rebecca's siblings,"
"Hey, let's go, we're going to meet up with my other siblings," Rebecca called, Eon and Luca backed up from each other as they walked to Rebecca and Asta, Kenos right behind them.
But unbeknownst to the group, Noelle was watching them from afar, and as they got on the move on, she began following them.
"Oh Marie, I can't wait to see you, you're going to love everything I got for you,"
Gauche walked through the streets of Nean, blood running down his nose, nothing out of the ordinary, however, tied on his back was a plethora of different kinds of toys and stuffed animals, earning glares from onlookers.
"Nothing like spending all of my pay for the only person that matters," he said before smiling. "Alright, once I get past that corner, I'll arrive right where Marie is staying,"
Gauche then quickened his pace as he turned around the corner. "Oh Marie, I have-," he began cheering, but stopped as Marie, but she wasn't alone, Marie was holding Asta's arm as the magicless mage spun both her and Marco, not too far from them was Kenos, Rebecca, Eon, and Luca, with Rebecca's other siblings standing close by.
"Asta, what is he doing here, and why is he making contact with Marie!" Gauche exclaimed as he put down all of the toys he bought, he then ran up and dropkicked Asta to the ground, but that wasn't it as he continued stepping on the swordsman's back.
"Gauche, what're you doing?!" Kenos exclaimed.
"I was coming here to visit my sister during my day off, but then I see this idiot spinning her around!" Gauche replied as he continued stepping on his squadmate.
Marie ran to her older brother. "Gauche, stop hurting Asta, please,"
"No can do my angel, I'm going to keep doing this until he's dead," Gauche said back.
"No, you can't kill him," she pleaded.
"And why shouldn't I?" Gauche asked.
"Because...because...I'm going to marry him someday!" she exclaimed.
Gauche stopped immediately, unable to believe what words just left his sister's mouth, the others were surprised too, their faces showed comedic shock, even Noelle, who was hiding nearby, was shocked by the little girl's statement, the only one not showing any look of surprise was Asta, who found nothing see said odd, especially since he was guilty of doing such actions back at his church.
"Um, Luca, you said Marie was 10 years old right?" Kenos asked, the look of comedic shock not leaving his eyes, or anyone else's.
The girl didn't say anything, but she merely nodded, confirming Kenos' question.
"And Asta's 15, when you think about it, it isn't really that large of an age gap, but I think it would sound better if they were both adults," the solar mage said once more, everyone else nodded in agreement.
"I'm going to marry him someday!" Marie's words repeated in Gauche's head. "No," he said before dropping to the ground in defeat.
Marie walked to her brother's body. "Gauche, are you alright?"
The mage rose up immediately. "Don't worry Marie, I'm fine," he then turned to face Asta, who was just starting to stand up. "But he won't be, now I'm really going to kill you," he said as he took out his grimoire.
"Oh shit, this is getting serious, I better do something," Kenos muttered as he prepared to take out his own grimoire.
"So you've come back, I guess that explains where all that racket came from, isn't that right, Gauche?"
The group turned at the sound of the voice and saw an old lady approaching them, she was quite tall, dressed in a nun's outfit, with gray hair, and a scar across her eye.
"A nun?" Asta muttered.
"Sister Theresa!" Marie exclaimed, running to the old lady.
"Uh, it's you, old hag," Gauche said with little interest.
"I see you're still acting like the same delinquent as usual," Theresa said, turning to see Asta and Kenos. "Hello there, I am Theresa Rapual, but you can just call me Sister Theresa,"
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Asta,"
"And I'm Kenos Rossiu,"
"Ah, it's good to meet such well-mannered young men, unlike Gauche," Theresa said. "He used to be an ex-convict, and before that, he and Marie were members of a noble family,"
That last piece of information surprised Kenos. "Wait, Gauche, you're a noble, like me?"
Gauche merely crossed his arms and nodded, Theresa continued speaking. "When he was in jail, his sister was sent to live with me at my church, I teach other children as well, including Rebecca's brothers and sisters,"
"Oh stop rubbing it in, you old hag, you get to spend every day with Marie, but I'm only allowed to see her once a damn month!" Gauche exclaimed.
"Watch your mouth, there are children here, we can't have them hearing your vulgar language," Theresa warned sternly.
"Whatever, fuck your rules, you lousy bitch," he said, turning to his sister. "C'mon Marie, time for some brother-sister bonding,"
"But Gauche, I don't want to hang out with you," she said, running to the magicless mage and holding his arm. "I want to spend the day with Asta!"
"With...him," Gauche muttered as he fell to the ground again, but this time, his body turned brown as if he was turned to stone.
"Um...is he going to be okay?" Kenos asked.
"He'll be fine, he's just a crazy sister lover," Theresa replied as she walked over and took Marie's hand. "Let's head back to the church for dinner, you can play with Asta some more tomorrow,"
"Okay, bye Asta," Marie said as the two left.
The swordsman waved back. "Speaking of dinner, I'm pretty hungry," Asta said, grabbing his stomach.
"Why don't we head to the restaurant, my treat," Rebecca said.
"Nice," Asta and Kenos said as they followed the scarlet-haired girl to her establishment.
Noelle peeked from her hiding spot behind them. "How am I going to get into the restaurant without being noticed, I'm going to need a disguise," she whispered.
Kenos then stopped and looked behind him, Noelle pressed her body against where she hid, hoping not to be seen, the solar mage held his chin. "That's strange, I swore that I felt that someone was around here,"
"Hey Kenos, you coming!" Eon called.
"I'm coming," he said back as he continued walking. Noelle breathed a sigh of relief.
Night fell as the group sat in Rebecca's restaurant, the building was quite full with patrons from the town.
"It's a good thing I was able to buy this, now they won't be able to recognize me," Noelle thought as he looked at the new clothes she was wearing, along with the red bandana covering the back of her head.
"Wow, this food tastes great!" Asta exclaimed happily as he dug into food in front of him.
"I'm glad," Rebecca said as she began working on other meals.
"Here you go," Luca said as she placed a plate in front of Nero, full of white berries, the anti-bird wasted no time gobbling the plate clean.
"Dang, that was fast," she said before turning to see Gauche's body, still like stone. "The sister said he'd be fine," she shrugged before walking away.
"Here you go Kenos, my specialty," Eon said as she put a plate of pasta in front of Kenos, the green-haired girl held the tray she was carrying the plate with by her mouth. "I hope you like it,"
"I'd be careful if I were you, Eon's food has been known to be pretty lethal," Luca said as she walked by.
"What, are you trying to say my cooking is bad?" Eon asked.
The girl shrugged with a grin on her face. "Maybe,"
"You can be such a brat sometimes!" Eon exclaimed as she placed her hands forward, encasing the little girl in wind before she began spinning around violently, she was eventually released, but was quite dizzy.
"It looks like you lost this time Luca!" a patron exclaimed, it seemed like the bickering between the two was done quite often, much to the entertainment of the patrons, but not too much to the newcomers.
The solar mage looked at his meal before taking a bite. "Hey, this is really good,"
"I'm glad you like it, I take it that now you can see that Luca's words shouldn't be taken at face value," Eon said.
Kenos nodded. "It seems that you and Luca argue a lot,"
The teen sighed. "We do, but I still love her, even though she annoys the crap out of me sometimes,"
"Just like a little sister," Kenos pointed out.
"Yeah...just like that," Eon said.
"You know something, Rebecca," Asta began, the scarlet-haired girl looked at him. "You'd make a great wife someday,"
"WHAT!" Noelle mentally screamed as the water in her cup began boiling.
"Oh, what a nice thing for you to say," Rebecca said with a blush as she held her cheek. As she began stirring a sauce when Marco tugged at her shirt. "Yes, Marco?"
"Sister, are you going to marry Asta?" the boy asked innocently.
"Marco," Rebecca said frantically, turning to assure that Asta wasn't listening, and thankfully, he was engrossed in his meal.
Unfortunately, Noelle was listening, and the water stopped boiling and shot up into the air, but not just hers, every cup there did the same.
"What the?" Eon wondered as she looked at the mini water geysers around her, she then walked to Rebecca. "Something going on?"
Marco turned to her. "I asked her if she's going to marry Asta," he replied.
Eon looked at the swordsman before looking back at her friend. "Oh, do you plan on jumping him in his sleep or something?"
The mini geysers evaporated simultaneously as Noelle's head dropped on the table.
"Eon, don't joke like that," Rebecca said.
"What, I'm just saying, if you like him, you better shoot your shot before someone else takes him," the girl said.
"Whatever," Rebecca said back.
"Hey Rebecca, do you mind if Kenos and I stay over?" Asta asked.
"Oh, sure, I'll prepare a bed for you two upstairs," she replied, ignoring the grin on Eon's face.
Hours passed and the town was quiet, not a person was seen outside, not a sound was heard, not a light was on, but that changed when a person was seen flying over the town on his broom, looking down at the town, his grimoire came up to him.
"Alright, it's time to begin," the man said as he began uttering words, a few seconds passed before snow began falling, and a few minutes passed before doors opened and people began walking, meeting up in one spot as they continued in a single file line.
Inside, Asta and Kenos were sleeping soundly, until a shadow loomed over them, more specifically, over Asta.
The person in question was Gauche.
He took out his grimoire. "There's no way in hell I'm letting you marry my sister, die right now,"
Asta slowly opened his eyes as he noticed the shadow, they were then alert as he jumped up and saw Gauche looking at him murderously. "Gauche?"
"Mirror Magic: Reflect Ray!" Gauche exclaimed as a mirror appeared beside and fired a beam of purple light.
Asta's grimoire came up to him as he pulled out his short sword and cut the blast in half.
"What's going on?" Kenos mumbled as he turned in his sheets.
"Kenos wake up, Gauche is trying to kill me!" Asta exclaimed as he began deflecting the light beams.
"What?!" Kenos exclaimed as he kipped-up from his bed.
"Die, die, die!" the mirror mage exclaimed. "Mirror Magic: Real Double!"
At his call, a clone of Gauche appeared by the real one, the double fired a beam from his mirror too.
"Damn it!" Asta exclaimed as one of the beams hit him, breaking a part of the wall and shooting him outside.
"Now I've got you," Gauche said as his double vanished and he jumped down.
"Gauche, wait!" Kenos said as he too jumped down. "Asta is our squadmate, you can't kill him, because Captain Yami will kill you,"
"You might be right, but I'm too angry to care!" he exclaimed as he was about to launch another attack.
"Kenos! Asta!" a voice exclaimed, they turned to see Eon and Rebecca running to them.
"Eon, um, sorry about the wall," Kenos said.
Eon looked confused before she noticed the hole in the wall, the solar mage could see a vein on her head bulging. "Just in case you were wondering, I had nothing to do with it, it was Gauche, right over there, he did everything, but we'll pay for the repairs,"
"Thanks, but that's not the problem," Eon said, Kenos could see a look of worry in her eyes, a sight that he wasn't used to. "It's Marco and Luca,"
"Did something happen to them?" Asta asked.
Rebecca was the one to reply this time. "Yes, they've gone missing,"